


time sensitive

by fated_addiction



Category: K-pop, Korean Actor RPF, Real Person Fiction, SM Entertainment | SMTown, So Nyuh Shi Dae | Girls' Generation, 소녀시대 | Girls' Generation | SNSD
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, Friendship, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-30
Updated: 2015-12-30
Packaged: 2018-05-10 08:27:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5578471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fated_addiction/pseuds/fated_addiction
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Jessica loves her sister. Like a lot. She is one of the only people she'd actually hide a body for <i>and</i> not actually accidentally-oh-maybe-purposefully get caught.</i>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Taeyeon needs a lawyer. Jessica's a little freaked out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	time sensitive

**Author's Note:**

> Everybody knows how much I love my AUs. 
> 
> This is how we got here.

Jessica loves her sister. Like a lot. She is one of the only people she'd actually hide a body for _and_ not actually accidentally-oh-maybe-purposefully get caught. She has a lot of people like that in her life too. 

But when Soojung asks her to meet at one of the coffee shops near her apartment and _not_ the university, she knows that there is something wrong. Maybe not something big. (She hopes. Like that time Soojung told her parents that she was going to be an actress.) Maybe not something her parents did either. (Or like that time they tried to send both sisters to a matchmaker without actually telling them. That was complicated.) But, deep in her heart of hearts, Jessica can smell her sister's bullshit from city blocks away.

"So," she greets, when finding the quiet corner Soojung occupies. Her coffee is already sitting in the space in front of her. "Before you actually tell me what is going on, tell me this: do I have to commit a felony?"

Soojung snorts. "No." She drops her chin over her hand. "Eonni," she says seriously. Her brows furrow. "You know I'm a little more creative than that."

Jessica studies her sister carefully. The creases in her mouth are definite. She hasn't quite looked her in the eyes, sort of shying her gaze into her own coffee. She's in trouble, she thinks. She didn't get her drama role, she thinks too. Which is probably not it either. Soojung has different reactions to work.

"Then," she says after awhile. "I give up. What is it? You didn't rob a bank, did you?"

Her sister rolls her eyes. She's hesitant, reaching for her coffee. She drinks first, then sighs, and shrugs her way into whatever she needs to say.

"I know you're not a lawyer yet," she says, and oh god, immediately Jessica's warning bells go off. "I know you graduate in the spring and have a job lined up as a prosecutor and --"

"So you murdered something," she cuts off Soojung, who only laughs. She leans across the table and pats her hand. "You got to let that one go, you know."

She rolls her eyes. "I just need you to tell me. And spare the dramatics."

Soojung softens. It's not like she's stressed out or anything. Jessica has a couple more classes, a couple more briefs, and she's graduating a year early, straight into a job, and it's really, really intimidating and terrifying. She doesn't want to think about that because if she does, and sometimes she definitely does, she makes a laundry list of other possibilities that she almost did because she never really felt like she could anything else without being or feeling somewhat incomplete.

But then her sister says it.

"Do you remember Kim Taeyeon? We all went to school together years ago." Soojung bites her lip. The skin pales and flushes. "She's a company sunbae now. I know that contract law isn't really your thing, but I --"

Jessica's ears are ringing as she watches, half-awed as her sister stands and waves someone over. She remembers Kim Taeyeon. A lot of people remember Kim Taeyeon. And slowly, she realizes that Kim Taeyeon is walking to the table that she shares with her sister, her hair swept back into a messy braid, all pale and glossy and bright and way too unreal for a simple, stupid coffee shop.

Soojung says something else, something between a plea and a sigh that Jessica either doesn't hear or pay attention too. When Taeyeon reaches the table, she smiles a little, a flush of teeth pushing forward and over her lip. She sits next to Soojung.

Soojung and Taeyeon share a look. Jessica feels like the only thing she can do is stay quiet.

"Ask her, eonni," Soojung urges quietly.

Taeyeon squirms a little, shifting into the table. She smiles shyly, then sighs.

"I want," she starts, then stops. She sighs again, her eyes bright and burning into Jessica's without any hesitation. "I want to sue for my contractual release."

_Oh._

 

 

 

 

 

This makes everything a little more complicated.

You can't forget a famous classmate. It's instinctively accurate when you catch yourself ready, waiting, and stopping to say: "Oh yeah, I did go to school with --" but it's a little stranger, a little closer to surreal when Taeyeon shows up at her front door (because she could only say something stupid like "I guess I could help you...") and ready to come inside.

"Hey," she greets, holding up a bag. Jessica eyes it suspiciously. She's brought takeout. Which is fine. There is also an elaborate cover story prepped about reuniting best friends. Which, well, is not true but sort of true because they were in the same Advanced Calculus class or whatever. She can only remember that Taeyeon loves french fries.

"Sorry," Taeyeon apologizes. For like the fifth time. She walks behind Jessica into the apartment. They move to the kitchen first. "I didn't really want to go to a real lawyer yet... not that you're not a real lawyer."

"You should probably stop talking," she says, half-teasing, half-serious, and way more distracted than she wants to be. There's something definite and floral about Taeyeon's perfume. It's subtle and soft, etching itself into her head and she hates ever second of it.

"Sorry," Taeyeon mumbles. Then blushes. "I mean --"

Jessica laughs warmly. "It's fine." She awkwardly hits Taeyeon's arm as she grabs plates for the food. "I'm just teasing you."

The rest of the kitchen conversation is mostly small talk and cheeseburgers, which Jessica hates, but is sort of surprised because in the giant, brown paper bag that suddenly appears on her kitchen counter, it's just cheeseburgers and fries.

"... I hope they're not depriving you or something," she finishes, sort of disgusted, even more weirded out by the amount of grease that pools into the cheeseburger wrapping.

Taeyeon laughs.

"No," she says, amused. "It's like anything else. I want to eat healthy, but I refuse to punish myself."

"So why leave then," Jessica is blunt. She can't help it and settles in, sliding herself to sit on top of her counter. "You're one of their top selling artists, your group is solid and beloved, and you have had, like, three scandals in the last twenty years or something."

Taeyeon's expression changes, clouds, and then relaxes, as if she were telling herself to be a little more functional.

"You did your research."

Jessica doesn't blink. "Soojungie doesn't ask for favors."

Taeyeon looks at her, mystified. Jessica cocks her head to the side and shrugs. She has yet to decide if this is something she's going to help with or commit to. She already has a list of professors who actually specialize in this particular area that are, well, a million times better suited than she is.

"You're not very good at lying," she offers too, taking a small bite of her arch nemesis, the cheeseburger. Her stomach turns a little. 

"Do you think I'm lying to you now?" Taeyeon asks, defensive. There's a change in the pitch of her voice.

Jessica laughs. "No." She studies the other woman, swinging her legs a little. "No, I think that you've been completely honest up until now. I'm just trying to figure out why you asked my sister for this favor."

"She speaks really highly of you. Says that you were almost idol and then went to law school instead."

Jessica snorts. It's something that she can imagine Soojung saying, voice dry and sort of misdirected. 

"I get bored easily," she says.

Taeyeon snorts. "I'm not boring, I promise."

"I didn't say that I didn't like boring either," Jessica shoots back, not even missing a beat, somewhere between flirting and sharpened words.

She jumps down from the counter too, abandoning her burger and fries and moving to the living room to grab her laptop. Her apartment is small, at best, but pristine on the level of dysfunctional. She cannot work without a certain level of organization. She thinks she inherited that from her dad, while her mother's workaholic nature was evenly distributed to both Jung sisters. 

In all honesty, her parents were surprised at her choice. She was always the loudest, the brashest, the one that took on trouble rather than walking away from it. It's a trickle down effect too, of course, and instead of going to something regarding commercial law or something stupid like divorce, she goes and picks criminal law.

She manages to grab her laptop anyway. She stands her ground for a moment, still as Taeyeon awkwardly comes and joins her, like she doesn't know what else to do. 

"For the record," she says. "This is me telling you to hire a professional."

Taeyeon sighs. "I need to hear an honest overview of what we're going to get into. A law student --"

"Yeah, yeah." Jessica sits on the floor. She opens her computer. "We're overworked, tired, and prone to being way too honest as it is anyway."

Taeyeon smiles. It's a toothy grin, awkward even. Jessica can only think about how pretty it makes her.

 

 

 

 

 

A couple days later, she has some serious regret. She meets Tiffany and Sooyoung. Both women surround Taeyeon like a _Trespassing Here_ sigh, even though it's her house, even though this is, like, stupid, because she has a brief due at midnight and here she is moonlighting as some kind of co-conspirator to the end of KPOP music as we know it, or something to that fact. She needs to stay off the Internet.

"You're not even a real lawyer."

Sooyoung says this. Tiffany hisses and elbows the taller woman, while Taeyeon seems to shrink next to her. Jessica just hates how cluttered her coffee table is.

"I mean," Sooyoung says, eyeing her. "Your apartment is nice," she says too. It's a backhanded compliment; it's not messy, which is sort of admirable, but still irritating for a thousand more reasons.

Jessica doesn't hesitate at all. She pushes a glass of wine towards Sooyoung, across the coffee table while reaching for her own.

"No." She doesn't blink. "But this is still my real apartment with my very _real_ alcohol, where instead of writing my brief that's due in two hours, studying for my very _real_ criminal justice exam, I'm trying to help you all so that you don't cause a very real media frenzy with trying to leave one of the largest entertainment -- _global_ entertainment companies in the country by breaking your very real contract, one that you've had for nearly a decade."

Tiffany blinks. Taeyeon shrinks, next to her. Sooyoung snorts and sips her wine.

"I like her," she says to Tiffany too.

She feels like she's passed a test.

 

 

Later, when it's just Taeyeon and her television, when her laptop is open in her lap and the only words that have been typed across the screen are SERIAL KILLERS ARE OBJECTIVELY IRRITATING AND MESSY because she's exhausted, she needs to seriously figure out if one of her classmates is going to _actually_ drag them to a UKISS concert, and ignore the fact that she misses the days that she used to play the piano because it was one of the only things that really cleared her head.

"You can go home," she mumbles, tired. Her glasses are starting to slip against her nose. Her bangs are in her eyes too when she looks at Taeyeon, sort of smiling awkwardly and a little embarrassed that the seams are coming apart too. "You have the numbers of a couple of my professors."

Taeyeon smiles a little, but doesn't really say anything. She sips her wine. It only has a drop left, but Jessica finds herself watching her throat as she swallows, following the curve of skin into her collarbone.

"We talked to each other once," she says quietly.

Jessica blinks. "I don't remember?"

"Gym class," Taeyeon says. She laughs a little, tugging at the end of her braid. "Someone threw a ball at my head and you took the shot for me."

She strains a little, trying to remember. Because she doesn't. It doesn't sound like something she'd do either.

"You were so mad," Taeyeon recalls and laughs again, shaking her head. "I knew then that you were my hero -- I always remembered that moment and the fact that you played the piano so beautifully. I hoped that you were going to be a singer too, just like me --"

She's rambling, which is bewildering to Jessica, who manages to keep some kind of semblance of a face. She stares at Taeyeon who watches her, really watches her, open and earnest, seeing her in a way that Jessica doesn't understand and feels insanely uncomfortable by.

It creates a sense of urgency though. Her heart is pounding. Her eyes flicker back over her laptop and she closes it. She pushes it over the coffee table.

"I'm sorry I don't remember," she says quietly. Which is true.

Taeyeon laughs. She's warm, reaching forward and tucking some hair behind Jessica's ear. "You don't have to," she offers and shifts closer too. "I'm the weirdo that does, I guess."

Jessica snorts, but doesn't pull away. "You're a weirdo," she agrees. "But it's cute."

Her eyes are bright and wide and Jessica really, really doesn't know what she's feeling right now but it's something. She leans closer too and there's something on the tip of her tongue, some kind of line, of course, because she's practiced and stretched thin and exhausted without knowing why.

She's suddenly insanely aware of Taeyeon. Her perfume crawls into her nose. It's a little too late because she's closer and Jessica watches her as she breathes in and out, remembers her notes and tones and steps and starts to count, hum, and watch the corner of the other woman's mouth.

Then she does something stupid --

it's becoming a habit, her reality and everything else in between --

She leans in, presses her mouth to Taeyeon's mouth, and kisses her.

Taeyeon kisses her back.

 

 

 

 

 

Jessica has a knack for the details.

This makes her dangerous and formidable. This is the reason why her advisor in her undergraduate year pulled her aside, by the arm, and said, "You need to think seriously about what you're about to do --" and boom, law school happened entirely too fast for her to look back.

But when she remembers Taeyeon's mouth, she's distracted, and the pressure of her tongue against hers, she feels a little insane, like she's losing it slowly and letting it happen. It hits her in a way that she doesn't understand and the pressure, the insanity of the pressure, of Taeyeon's mouth into hers feel a lot like breathing, necessary and honest. And that's terrifying.

 

 

 

 

 

They don't talk about the kiss. There is a stretch of days that unravel like a planned timeline: Taeyeon releases an album and it's number one in a matter of minutes, a series of planned concerts are announced, and all Jessica can think is: what the _actual_ hell are you doing, planning a coup and going along with everything.

"You don't understand," Taeyeon says, when she asks her. Which Jessica immediately regrets. Then gets angry because all Taeyeon does is look at her and shut down. Her expression dims. "This is my job," she murmurs.

Jessica throws her hands up. "That's bullshit," she spits, eyes flashing. "You have told me that you want to protect --" Then she stops herself. There is something in the way that Taeyeon looks at her, suddenly tired, suddenly too vulnerable. There's a sharp sense of defeat. It's not my business, she tells herself. "This isn't my business," she repeats, out loud. "But," she says. She's frank. "You _asked_ me for my help. You asked my _sister_ for help."

Taeyeon looks impossibly small, weighed by whatever it is that prompted the sudden backtracking. There's nothing that she hates more: backtracking because, without a doubt, it leads to a lie and because there's a lie involved everything else, everything that happened, seem to be lies too. She huffs. Her fingers curl into fists. She feels like throwing a tantrum because all of the sudden, she's frustrated and it's not even about her. 

"I don't understand your world," she says slowly. She's careful. She's more than just careful; she keeps seeing Taeyeon's face, then sees her sister's face, and she's fighting to keep herself from just losing it. She does not get this angry about anything. "My baby sister came to me," she says too, then searching Taeyeon's gaze, who looks at her, right at her, then looks away. She steps forward. "She never asks for anything. She's in this world too. I've seen her lows and at her worst. I know what it does to you. But I can't make you get out." Her voice sharpens. "This isn't my decision."

Taeyeon's hands hit the counter.

It comes out of _nowhere_ and Jessica jumps -- out of surprise, maybe, out of keeping it together too long, probably. She stares at Taeyeon, watching her face unravel, which is devastating, sad, and beautiful all at the same time.

"I have to hold it together." Her words are sharper than Jessica's. When she looks up, her gaze burns. Jessica doesn't shrink. She doesn't know how to shrink, but there is something within the other woman's gaze that makes her pause. "I am responsible for a lot of people," she says quietly. "It would have been easier if it was just me, just about _me_ , but it's not and I don't know how to reconcile that --" She sighs heavily. "You're not even a real lawyer."

The food in the kitchen is cold. Jessica's ears are ringing. She folds her arms in front of her chest and looks to her laptop, half-opened and forgotten. The corners of her eyes are burning and she can't even bring herself to say anything just yet. 

_Taeyeon steps forward. Jessica feels tired._

"Go home," she says quietly. She bites her lip. "Hire a real lawyer. You can't hide behind almosts anymore." 

Her arms fall from her chest. 

She looks up, and Taeyeon is taking a step back. 

It's finished, she thinks. 

The news breaks in between Thursday lectures. She's in the library, writing a paper that she cares, like, nothing about, when her phone buzzes with a series of text messages from her sister. 

YOU SHOULD READ THE INTERNET OCCASIONALLY is the first one she ignores. The second one is more like: SERIOUSLY YOU MAY HAVE RUINED THE MOST SUCCESSFUL GIRL GROUP IN THE HISTORY OF GIRL GROUPS -- DO YOU THINK YOU'LL PUT THAT ON YOUR RESUME. And there are times where she forgets that Soojung is, in fact, a little sister and little sisters tend to do little sister things so when the third text comes, she's already ready to reply: 

ARE YOU OKAY??? 

"I'm fine," she says over the phone, whispering. She covers the receiver, standing and ignoring looks as she goes and hides in between the shelves. "I'm writing a paper. And I have no idea what you're talking about." 

"Taeyeon-eonni hired your professor. They're going to break contract, create their own label a la Shinhwa or something -- our company's furious because they're not only taking an insane amount of contracts and what not, but some of the employees are going too." 

"You sound like mom." Jessica's trying to be dry. "When her favorite drama doesn't go her way." 

Soojung scoffs. "Look," she says. "It's going to be tough and whatever, but Taeyeon eonni keeps asking me about you which leads me to assume, if anything, that you were either an ass, you guys made out, or she did something -- I can't really kill her because I'm too busy, but I'll think really hard about it." 

Jessica laughs. She earns a look from a guy that's sitting in a cubby across the way. She shrugs and turns away. 

"It's none of your business, brat." 

"Uh-huh." She loves Soojung so much, maybe too much, and she can imagine her little sister's face scrunched and serious. "Just don't sulk," her sister says. "If it's meant to be, it'll be. Otherwise, you need to hurry up and get through law school so that I can tell people you fight crime." 

She rolls her eyes. "Sure, fine." 

They could carry this conversation forever, there's a retort at the tip of her tongue too, but she really needs to get back to her paper, she needs to not think about Taeyeon, and she needs to remain stupidly happy that she never got into the entertainment industry. 

It feels like a breakup, of course. 

At the same coffee shop, where weeks ago she found herself saving a pop star, meeting a pop star, which then all lead to making out with said pop star, she sequesters herself into a corner, flanked by books and her laptop and the intention to study for a huge exam. There's also the particulars of a job, of course, which she doesn't want to think about at the moment since adulthood is sharp and cruel and everything that she's been for years. 

But after staring at the same sentence on her computer, the blinking cursor starts to burn into her eyes, and it's like, whatever, she needs more coffee or she's going to be doing this all night, and that is so not the plan at all. 

"Hi." 

Nothing happens in slow motion. She's pragmatic, of course, and looking up, she finds herself staring at Taeyeon, the real Taeyeon, standing in front of her and mildly uncomfortable. She starts piecing this reality together, reaching for her empty coffee cup without knowing what else to do but that. 

"Well," she starts casually, "this is weird." 

Taeyeon freezes. Then smiles. She shuffles forward into sitting across from her. 

"Your sister told me you were probably her. Says you get a little crazy and refuse to be in your apartment during exams." 

"Apartments are for sleeping," she snorts. "And I miss sleeping. I don't need to torture myself just yet." 

"Valid point." 

_Jessica shrugs. "I'm full of them."_

They study each other. Taeyeon reaches forward, gently prying the coffee cup out of her hand. She opens it up, tossing the lid inside and starts gathering the small pile of sugars and napkins. 

"I'm sorry," Taeyeon says. Jessica freezes, almost like she's been struck, then regains her composure because this is all a little too much. She doesn't know whether or not she should say something, like actually say something, because her head is spinning and she's flashing back to the kiss. 

_Something dulls inside of her._

"About what?" 

Taeyeon looks around. "Can we talk somewhere else? My apartment is nearby. I'll feed you," she promises. 

"I have to --" she pauses, bites her lip. You should eat, she tells herself. "I don't know," she says slowly, and it's weird, because she knows her and she doesn't, and everything is starting to boil forward, all the words she really wants to say: yeah, sure, let's do this because it's everything and nothing that she wants. 

But she looks at Taeyeon, really looks at Taeyeon, and thinks to herself _can I do this_ because she doesn't like messy things. From a distance, this is what it seems like it's going to be. 

She's just really pretty. 

Jessica sighs loudly, pushing herself to sit straighter. She reaches out, taking Taeyeon's hand. Their fingers lace and for a moment, they just sit there, staring and waiting and holding hands. Taeyeon's palm is warm, softer than it should be against her own. It makes something in her twist. 

"You're staging a coup," Jessica says finally. "You don't have time to date." 

Taeyeon laughs, blushing. It's too pretty and Jessica wants to kick her and kiss her at the same time. 

"I have time for you," is all she says. 

Jessica feels her smile so much that it hurts. 

The rest of the conversation happens in Taeyeon's kitchen, which is like one big giant metaphor for their life, everything happens in the kitchen and around food. It's mostly small talk, which Jessica hates, over cheeseburgers, which Jessica _doesn't_ hate, because that would be, like, some kind of crime or something. 

They sit close together by the bar. Jessica's legs are long and wedged between Taeyeon's. She finds herself smiling, then solemn, and maybe she's going a little crazy because she feels a certain way and is kind of just letting it happen. 

"I don't have time for dating," she blurts, then. She continues to count on her fingers. "And you have to make people question the future of the pop world." 

Taeyeon laughs. "Seriously?" 

"Just go with it," Jessica says. "Anyhow, I just -- I don't do things like this," she says too. "And I'd just really like to --" 

"Kiss me?" Taeyeon quips, then laughs when Jessica kicks her. This is so not the conversation they should be having. 

"Well, yeah." She barely blinks at the admission. Her mouth curls and she sighs, leaning forward and tucking Taeyeon's hair behind her ear. "I'm glad things are moving forward," she murmurs. 

Taeyeon smiles, the fades into seriousness, pulling her hand into hers again. She squeezes and Jessica's a little breathless, laughing shyly too. 

"I'm not going to let this go," Taeyeon says, sliding forward and between her legs. "I'm not perfect either." 

_"Are you going to give me a speech?" Jessica says, amused._

"Shut _up_." Taeyeon glares, but it doesn't work because Jessica is laughing a little, smiling so much that it hurts because she's well-aware where this might be going and she's okay with that, but the girl has to hurry up. "Your sister says you're ridiculously stubborn," Taeyeon continues and Jessica starts to laugh harder. 

"You asked for her permission?" 

Taeyeon is red and mumbling. "... yeah." 

This is where she decides to do it, regardless of the fact that this is probably really messy, going to be dramatic, but she's never really cared about these things to begin with. Her hands flank Taeyeon's face and she leans in, kissing her, really kissing her, kissing hard and soft and with a warm, wet mouth because she's been studying too hard and this is a reality that she knows she can take on herself. 

Everything is spinning and hot and when Taeyeon's teeth do this thing where they just bite, just _softly_ over her lip, Jessica knows she's even crazier for settling into this. 

"I don't need speeches," she says, breathes, and tangles her fingers against the back Taeyeon's neck. Their mouths hovers. "If you wanted to date me," she says. "Just ask." 

Soojung will take credit for all of this, of course. For the next hour and something minutes of pure, unapologetic making out. Jessica will make some comment about tasting like a cheeseburger. Taeyeon will laugh. She'll think it again: this is messy and complicated and about a million other things. But Taeyeon has a pretty laugh and tells her that she has an even prettier one, which only makes her smile brighter and it's gross and sweet and almost too much." 

It's like a study guide, after all. To falling in love. 


End file.
